The United States Must Vaccinate the World Now

Photo by GovernmentZA is licensed for use under CC BY-ND 2.0.

In September 2021, COVID-19 claimed about 8,500 lives a day worldwide. On average, 80 percent of residents in the world's wealthiest countries have received at least one dose, compared to 20 percent from the poorest countries. As of mid-September, only four percent of Africans were fully immunized. This is a global humanitarian crisis. Vaccinating a strong majority of the world population is the path to finally ending the pandemic, but until vaccines are available in every country, the virus will continue to evolve into elusive variants. The United States could end the suffering, protecting Americans and others alike, with a 26 billion dollar investment to vaccinate the world. As self-proclaimed world leaders, the Biden administration must stand up to vaccine producers hoarding profits and act swiftly to protect the health of billions around the world. 

The United States has plenty of vaccines for its citizens. In fact, almost 15 million doses have been thrown away since mid-March. It is time to shift the focus to the rest of the world. Every day that the United States waits to start vaccinating the world costs the health of thousands, disproportionately those in developing countries. The worldwide death toll is nearing five million, and the virus has hospitalized millions more. To compound the problem, vaccine distributors have prioritized wealthy nations, leaving little to no vaccines for developing countries with the weakest healthcare systems. Pfizer and Biotech have distributed nine times more vaccines to Sweden than all poorer countries combined. Meanwhile, Moderna has not delivered a single dose to developing nations. These low-income nations are at the mercy of the world's wealthiest nations. At the recent UN general assembly, leaders of African countries criticized vaccine distribution, with Namibia's President Hage Geingob calling it a "vaccine apartheid." South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa echoed Geingob’s protests, saying, "It is, therefore, a great concern that the global community has not sustained the principles of solidarity and cooperation in securing equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines." With global leaders from developing nations calling for equitable access to the vaccine, where is the United States?

Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization, calculates that it would cost $26 billion for the United States to subsidize the production of 8 billion Moderna vaccines. That is only 0.28 percent of the $9.128 trillion that the United States has spent on its COVID-19 response to this point. Legislation has already designated $53.4 billion in funding for vaccine and treatment development. Of the $53.4 billion, $34.6 billion has been spent, meaning $18.8 billion remain unused for vaccine development. Using up that $18.8 billion would leave us $7.2 billion short of the amount needed to distribute 8 billion doses of the vaccine worldwide. However, out of the $662 billion appropriated for health spending, $257 billion remains unused as of October 16, 2021. Congress could shift funds to increase spending on vaccine development and distribution. 

Responding to COVID-19 has not been a time of economic austerity for the United States. Now is not the time to be stingy when we have the capability to end the pandemic. Ultimately, this plan will save billions of dollars by lowering costs of healthcare spending and research. With global and local economies surging in a post-COVID-19 world, the proposal will pay for itself many times over. The International Monetary Fund estimates vaccinating the world would yield $9 trillion in global economic growth by 2025. Tax revenues and global trade would see a dramatic increase, and the US economy would have no trouble recollecting its investment. The United States must not balk at the $26 billion price tag.

The United States and European Union have stated their commitment to using COVAX, a World Health Organization program dedicated to quickly and equitably distributing vaccines, as the agent to share vaccines with the world. The United States has pledged a total of 1.1 billion vaccines while the EU has added 500 million. This is a good start, but the rollout is too slow, and the quantity is insufficient. President Joe Biden must use his executive power to declare the pandemic a threat to national security. Then, empowered by the Defense Production Act, Biden can increase vaccine production and distribution dramatically. 

Sharing mRNA technology with international manufacturers is critical to upscaling production,,. However, the European Union's stance of opposing waivers and only supporting voluntary technology transfers has made this more difficult. The U.S. government must leverage the significant stake they own in the Moderna vaccine to force them to waive patents and initiate tech transfers. Moderna accepted $2.5 trillion U.S. taxpayer dollars to develop its vaccine. This is the people's vaccine, and Moderna should not leverage it for profit. The vaccine giants such as Moderna and Pfizer are prioritizing profits over lives. These corporations sell the majority of their doses to the countries willing to pay the most, and they charge up to 24 times the production price per dose. These companies are blinded by greed, and the government must step in to make the vaccine affordable for developing nations. These companies will undoubtedly resist sharing their technology, and legal battles will be a necessary preliminary step before global production can begin. 

Once the technology is transferred, Biden should enlist the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to make manufacturing plans. They have experience in mass-producing the flu vaccine and are the organization best equipped to plan global vaccine production. Additionally, countries such as South Africa, India, Brazil, and Vietnam have the necessary infrastructure and manufacturing capacity to produce mRNA vaccines quickly. While the timeline of this process is unclear and largely would depend on how long it takes the U.S. government and Moderna to strike a deal that will transfer Moderna technology, the Biden administration must act quickly, as every day wasted costs lives.

In vaccinating the world, the United States has an opportunity to reassert itself as the world's leader in science, technology, and humanitarian policy. As part of its rise to global leadership, China plans to offer other countries two billion vaccines by the end of the year. However, the vaccines they distribute range from 50 to 80 percent effective. President Biden can step in to offer much higher quality vaccines while also fulfilling his  statement that President Biden is the “clear and consensus leader of the free world.”  

Biden claims, “The United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home.” To this point, that has been far from true. However, there is still time for Biden and the United States to fulfill their promise to the world. Every day of inaction costs thousands of lives. The administration must get to work immediately to vaccinate the world and end the COVID-19 pandemic.